Tuesday, December 8, 2015

It has been such a long ass time since my last post, and so I will not even attempt to try and fill the gaps of things that have happened. The cliff notes version is this. I moved to Somerville. I love it.
Ok enough reminiscing.
I am going to do my best to keep better tabs here of my goings on. I am starting with my most recent series of works titles "Totems".
The totem has been used for centuries as the representation of a spiritual being or sacred symbol. It has served as protection or warning to the evil who would do harm to those who the totem represents. They were also a symbol of heritage using an animal, which represented the character of the individual or group of people it was serving. Many civilizations on earth utilize the totem to pay homage to the invisible duality that exists amongst the waking life. The totem is the earliest form of ritualistic worship, the backbone for religion and magic.
For me, this series represents a personal inward reflection. It is a search for spirituality and perspective through a meditation on nature.
Each totem in the series takes the form of one of more animals or human faces. One can find even more when the image is inverted.
The process:
The work for this series is a combination of processes. It begins with a photograph, shot on black and white medium format film. The negative is scanned, dissected and inverted. Then a pigment print is made on a Japanese Kozo, a rice paper made from the mulberry tree. The print is then mounted on a prepared substrate and sized with a PVA solution.
The entire print is then coated with a homemade encaustic made of beeswax, dammar crystals and carnauba wax. After it is cooled, it is hand buffed.
The image is then mounted in a hand crafted custom frame made of pine with a border accent of hand cut and hammered aluminum.
The piece is wired with the option to hang two ways. It is displayed in the gallery in the artist’s preferred direction.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

I am very pleased and lucky to have a colleague of mine, Brienne Walsh write up an essay after discussing my upcoming solo show in Berlin at Strychnin Gallery. Please have a look see at her perspective.
In The Birds, an ancient Greek comedy written in 414 BC by the playwright
Aristophanes, a pair of middle aged men from Athens convince the kingdom of
birds to build a city in the sky so that they can have dominion over the Gods in the
heavens and the humans on the earth. The city, they plan to call Νεφελοκοκκυγία,
(Nephelococcygia) which in English is translated at “Cloud Cuckoo Land.” Although
the city was never realized, the term survived history. In the 20
used by philosophers such as Nietzsche, and politicians such as Margaret Thatcher,
to describe an unrealistic utopian state where everything is perfect. “You’re living
in cloud-cuckoo-land” became a common phrase to describe someone who was
delusional. It also came to describe the practice of looking up at the clouds, and
seeing figurative forms emerge from their shapes.
For his exhibition at Strychnin gallery in Berlin, David Hochbaum reclaims the
original use of the word to describe his paintings, sculptures, installations and
photographs. In them, he shows the viewer visions of worlds that he created solely
from his imagination. “I was looking for a different way to say ‘kingdom of spirits,’”
he says of coming upon the title for the exhibition. “Νεφελοκοκκυγία was kind of
perfect, because I like to paint clouds, and I like the use of words that aren’t literal,
but rather make suggestions.”
Each work is the sum of many different components that derive both from
Hochbaum’s subconscious memories, and his obsession with using many different
kinds of processes — printing, painting, photography, sculpture, carving, drawing
and writing to name just a few. “They’re the result of a collective unconscious,” says
Hochbaum, who lives half suspended between the real world and the one that he
sees in his dreams. “I feel like I’m both terraforming and solving puzzles as I create
each one of the works.”
The two large-scale painting-based wall installations most obviously reference the
“city in the sky” from The Birds. Consisting of a collage of photocopies, prints and
drawings that together form the shape of a walled city, the works are redolent of
great Northern Renaissance paintings such as The Tower of Babel (c. 1563) by Pieter
Bruegel and the surreal landscapes by Hieronymus Bosch. They also have roots
in the fantasy literature about King Arthur that Hochbaum read as a child, as well
as his great love for the intricate drawings of Richard Scarry. “I started noticing
connections with Scarry after I began the paintings,” Hochbaum said. “The bright
color schemes and worlds within worlds, but also the absence of human beings.”
The absence of human presence is intentional. “I don’t draw figures well,” he
explained. “The buildings become figures; the cities become landscapes of figures.”
In the space of the composition, Hochbaum’s architectural structures floats on an
expanse of blue, like the abandoned cities in the classic Japanese anime film, Castle
in the Sky (1986), which derives its inspiration from Jonathan Swift’s novel Gulliver’s
Travels. Upon closer inspection, the sky bears traces of phrases and lines of text that
Hochbaum wrote into the background of the work. “Whatever went through my
head as I was making the painting goes into those words,” he says. Although the text
is a stream of consciousness not meant to be translated literally, he says that he is
often inspired to write down lyrics he mis-hears from songs he listens to while he
paints.
The frames of the paintings, which Hochbaum also constructs by hand, are littered
with tiny hand-made houses. “It adds a kind of old world, cuckoo clock dimension
to each piece that I really enjoy,” he says. “They become toys that you don’t let your
kids play with.” No two houses are the same — they betray a sort of obsessivecompulsive internal logic that doesn’t allow Hochbaum to ever repeat a work, no
matter how small the dimensions.
Along with the paintings, Hochbaum will show photographs of his niece Carly
taken in the woods near his hometown New City, in upstate New York. Much like
the architectural paintings, the images depict haunting landscapes that seem like
glimpses into parallel realities.
Hochbaum first started photographing Carly when she was 6 — today, she is 10.
“I used to feel nuts going into the woods with a little girl, and a bag full of ropes,
hammer and scissors,” he laughed. Sometimes, joggers would encounter them along
a path, and go running off in the opposite direction. Carly, however, loves being a
model — so much so that she often directs herself during the shoots. She is both his
muse and his co-conspirator.
The works they create together have the feel of fairy tales — looking at them, you
get the eerie sense that you’ve seen them in your minds eye before, when you
were being read stories by Hans Christian Andersen as you fell asleep in your early
childhood.
The figure of Carly comes to life in the child-sized mannequins Hochbaum chose to
include in the exhibition for the first time in his career. On their heads, he placed his
hand-made houses and birds, forming a visual lineage between the objects he places
on the frames in his paintings, along with the props he uses in photo shoots with
Carly.
The inclusion of all sorts of mediums serves many purposes. First, it creates a sort of
inclusive environment that reaches out into the space of the viewer so that they are
immersed in a world of physical objects that they can’t ignore. Secondly, it shows
the artistic virtuoso of Hochbaum, who is a self-proclaimed “process freak.” “I want
to be a great painter, and a great photographer, and a great printer,” Hochbaum
explains.
Working in so many different mediums insures that Hochbaum never gets bored —
every morning, he wakes up, and follows his mood. Some days, he feels like painting.
Others, hammering frames. And others, layering images together so that they form a
dream world. “It opens up the doors for things to happen spontaneously,” he says of
the fluid way that he approaches his work.
In the exhibition, the viewer is given entry not only to Hochbaum’s subconscious
world, but also his studio in the East Village in New York City, which is littered with
objects that he’s created over the many years he’s been working as an artist. There,
too, visitors can look up at the walls, and become lost in their own imaginations.
Stepping into the space, one feels lost in time. The sounds of the street disappear.
Concerns of the outside world slip out under the door. Days slip into nights, and
then mornings. Hochbaum’s true genius lies not in his mastery of many processes,
but rather in his ability to make people yearn to be a part of his world.
Brienne Walsh is a writer and critic who contributes to the Village Voice,
The New York Times, Art in America, ArtReview, Modern Painters, Hotshoe,
Interview and Paper, among other publications. Her personal blog is
www.briennewalsh.tumblr.com

Thanks to the efforts of Yasha Young(Strychnin Berlin) and Kallenbach Gallery in Amsterdam, my good buddy Daniel and I have got a 2 man show opening this August 22nd. This will be my first time showing in Amsterdam and I am glad it is along side the talented and capable Dutch artist Van Nes. I will not have the chance to be out there my self, but Daniel and our long time advocate and fearless leader, Yasha Young, will be there for our opening.
We have produced a very special book to accompany the show so if'n you cant make it and would like a little piece of this project, please go to the gallery site and pick one up. Its a bit of our history and it will help out our cause a bunch.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

I have set up a small on line shop to offer some one of a kind works to collect. I will only be posting limited series and small works at affordable prices.
This will be my alternative to numbered and signed prints and posters. Each work will be unique and handmade yet very accessible. The works will also be on specials from time to time, starting with this holiday season when I will be marking stuff down from 20%-40%. This will only be until the 20th of December. Please stop by and have a look see and also, please do tell a friend!
GO TO THE SHOP
Thank you!

Friday, November 9, 2012

For the past 6 years, David and I have been talking about doing an entire exhibit of collaborative work. Tonight in Berlin
, the 9th of November 2012, our exhibit opens. About a year ago to put ourselves to the task of spending as much time as we could together, hashing out ideas and making art. And now we are both in Berlin and 4 days of living in the gallery, we got it done...
For those in the area, here is the address info and for those not, I have some links to Strychnin Gallery and progress shots below. Enjoy, we worked ourselves pretty hard for this show, worth every second that I lived it.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Another year has gone by and it is that time of year again to head off to Germany for a few exhibits. I will be returning to Art Fair in Cologne with Strychnin/Yasha Young Gallery for an installation I am calling "Kingdom Of Spirits". It is an ongoing collection of works I have been working on for the past 2 years. Most of the images are of my niece, Carly, who I have been photographing for several years. The narrative has been about memory for the most part. I have been revisiting places I have grown up around as Carly traversed through forests and paths I would play in as a child.
As well as my install in Cologne, I will be traveling to Berlin for an exhibition I am having in collaboration with artist David Stoupakis. Stoupakis and I have become close friends over the past five years and have been waiting to have the chance to create a body of work in which we collaborate on every piece. Well, Strychnin Gallery has offered us the venue and for the past year we have been preparing a body of work which we are titling "Requiem:Caretakers of the garden of the Stars". These paintings are a collections of characters that one may encounter while traveling through the realm of Purgatory. It is an homage to the Requiem by Mozart, Dante's Purgatory and to the loved ones who have passed on. We will both be installing the show in Germany which opens the 9th of November at Strychnin. If you are in the area or know anyone who may be interested in seeing this, please pass on the info. This is a rare opportunity to see this collaboration between the two of us.